Making it a night to remember
Hospice builds on last year's success and hopes to raise £150,000 in one event
(Gazette 23/1/2008)
by Louisa Felton

READY TO GO: Hospice of St Francis at the Walk with the Stars 2008 launch. Below, Abbots Langley sisters from left Susan Chap-pin, Christine Creasy and right Mandi McSwiggan.

The Hospiceof St Francis in Berkhamsted has launched a massive campaign to raise £150,000 in just one night.

To celebrate its first anniversary in its new multimillion pound building in Shooters Way, organisers announced plans for a Walk With the Stars - their main fundraising event for 2008.

Last year a sea of 800 women dressed in hot pink T-shirts descended on to the streets of Da-corum for Berkhamsted's first 13-mile midnight walk from Hemel Hempstead to Berkhamsted and back again.

Organisers had hoped to raise £50,000 but were ecstatic when a staggering £120,000 poured in.

This year they are determined to smash their record and have set themselves the ambitious target of raising £150,000 and they want to see more than 1,000 woman hitting the streets on Saturday, June 21 2008.

They are also hoping to get a number of celebrities involved.
Last year footballing brothers, Tommy Smith from Watford FC and Jack Smith (Swindon) and Tottenham Hotspurs' goal-keeping coach Hans Segers, gave the women a send-off.
Among those already signed up is a trio of sisters from Abbots Langley whose father spent time in a hospice before he died of cancer.
Christine Creasy 47, Susan Chappin 41 and 38-year-old Mandi McSwiggan have had their breasts removed and reconstructed after cancer caused the death of both of their parents and sister who was just 34 when she died of breast cancer.
Christine has also been diagnosed with the disease twice.

Susan, whose mother-in-law is currently staying at the Hospice of St Francis, said: "When our father was ill he used a Hospice. "We know what good work they do. "It's a great place for rehabilitation and we are glad to be supporting it."
The money raised will be vital to the hospice which costs more than £3million in running costs alone and with just 23 per cent of funding coming from the government, they depend on successful events like Walk With the Stars to buy new equipment and to open new beds.
To register for the walk visit www.walk withthestars.org The event costs £15 to enter which pays for an information pack, T-shirt, florescent wrist band, torch, medal and breakfast at the finishing line.